


Neighbours, Friends, Lovers

by Celandine



Category: Harry Potter - Rowling
Genre: Ficlet, First Kiss, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-07-30
Updated: 2008-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-12 12:12:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 702
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/124704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Celandine/pseuds/Celandine
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Cedric has admired Percy since they were both small.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Neighbours, Friends, Lovers

There weren't many wizarding families near Ottery St Catchpole, and the only one with children near Cedric's age was the Weasleys. He quite liked the twins, most of the time, but they were always wrapped up in their own private games and jokes and didn't usually want or need a third person, except to play tricks on. Bill and Charlie were enough older that they weren't often willing to play with Cedric, and Ron was likewise too young.

Which left Percy. Percy was only a year older, and seemed somehow not to quite fit into his own family. He was usually reading a book when Cedric came to play, but could be coaxed away from it if Cedric tried hard enough. Cedric admired Percy. He told his mother one night that he wished he could have spectacles like Percy's, but she just laughed.

Percy wrote to Cedric from Hogwarts, the first year he went, telling Cedric how he'd been Sorted into Gryffindor and about all the classes he was taking. Cedric wanted to be a Gryffindor too, but when he arrived, the Sorting Hat put him into Hufflepuff instead. He knew that Hufflepuff House was the least respected by the other students, but it didn't take long to realise that most of the professors appreciated the hard work that its members put in, and that soothed him.

Being in different years and different Houses, Cedric only saw Percy across the Great Hall at meals, or sometimes in the library or at the Quidditch pitch during games. Charlie Weasley was on the Gryffindor team, but Percy wasn't. When Cedric asked him about it, Percy turned red and muttered that he wasn't any good on a broom, and Cedric impulsively hugged him, making Percy turn even redder and say that he'd rather become a prefect when he was old enough than be on the Quidditch team, anyhow.

Cedric decided that he would try to become a prefect too, just like Percy, but he liked Quidditch and tried out for the Hufflepuff team in his second year, making it as the Seeker. Whenever Cedric caught the Snitch and Hufflepuff won, the praise of his house mates was sweet, but not as much as Percy's offhanded smile of congratulations.

To his delight, Cedric was chosen as a prefect in his fifth year, and continued the next, when Percy was Head Boy. That was the year that he realised what he felt for Percy was more than just childhood friendship or even boyish admiration. He fancied Percy, so much so that it was Percy whom he imagined in his bed at night. He didn't dare say anything, though, since Percy was going out with Penelope Clearwater. Cedric just watched Percy and wished he were brave enough to speak, even if Percy laughed at him.

That summer, before his seventh year, was probably the last summer Percy would live at home at the Burrow, Cedric knew, and he managed to go by in the evenings several times a week, persuading Percy to come outside and sit with him on the overgrown grass. As the days grew longer and the nights grew warmer, Cedric began to sit closer, touching Percy's arm or leg as if by accident, and Percy let him.

Percy kissed Cedric for the first time on the eighth of August, fumbling a little, as if he weren't sure whether Cedric would be all right with it. Cedric put his arms tight around Percy and thought his heart would pound right out of his chest with happiness. He wanted to let everyone know how he felt, but Percy persuaded him that they should wait until the next summer, after Cedric was finished with school, to do so, saying that a year was a long time and they both needed to be sure. He promised that he would write Cedric every week, and that perhaps he'd even be able to visit Hogsmeade on occasional weekends.

When Cedric boarded the Hogwarts Express to start his seventh year, he put his hand in his pocket and touched the letter Percy had given him the night before, and he smiled. It was going to be a marvellous year, he was sure.

**Author's Note:**

> For emiime who asked for this pairing.


End file.
